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278
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1893.
"After much entreaty, however, the king consented to go, and, having finished his supper, he set out for the gôsánvi's mat. When he had reached it, the gôsánvi asked him what he wanted. The king said :- Did you not go to the palace this morning and tell my wife to send me over to you when I came home?' 'Yes, my lord,' answered the gosánvi. I will now tell you what to do. Go to a certain place where you will see a tree laden with fruit. Climb up the tree and shake it. Come down and take two of the fruit. Mind you do not take more than two. Eat one yourself and give the other to your wife, the queen; thereby you will obtain your desires.'
"The king went in the direction he was told by the gôsánvi, and saw a large tree which was bent down by the weight of its fruit. He climbed up and shook and shook the tree, till he saw hundreds of the fruit fall on the ground, but when he came down and went to pick up the fruit he found only two. So he climbed again, and again shook the tree for a long while, and he again heard the sound of hundreds of fruit falling, but, as before, when he was picking them up he got only two. The king was astonished at this occurrence, and climbed up in the tree a third time, and shook and shook the tree with all his might for a very long time, till he was tired, and he heard the sound of some thousands of the fruit dropping on the ground. When he came down, the ground under the tree was so covered by the fruit that he could not put his feet down without treading on heaps of them, which made him glad to think that he had at last plenty, but, to his great astonishment, as he proceeded to gather them, all the fruit went up again into the tree, and there remained for him to carry away only two. The king now thought to himself:- The gôsánvi told me to take only two of these fruit, but though I wished to take more, and I knocked down so many, I cannot get more than two. There must be some meaning in it. I will, therefore, abide by the instructions of the gôsánvi; or, who knows, if I should take more, they may lose their virtue?'
"He then took the fruit and shewed them to the gósánvi, who again told him to take them home, and to eat one himself and to give the other to the queen to eat.
«The king, after thanking the gôsánvi for his kind advice, went home with the fruit, and, giving one to his queen, told her to eat it, while he ate the other himself. From that moment the queen became pregnant, and, in due time, she gave birth to a very beautiful boy. This event was the cause of great joy to the old king and queen, and they feasted the palace servants very sumptuously.
“This much, O king, I know; I shall thank you to let me go."
The king, however, could not be persuaded to believe that the old ájjá knew only so much, and again prayed and urged him to tell something more, upon which the thousand-year-old man continued :
"Five days passed after the birth of the child and they celebrated the páñchví, and on the following day, the sixth day, was the satti. On the day of the satt a fortune-teller was called in to consult about the future of the infant-prince. When the fortune-teller was going away, after consulting the horoscope, the pardhan of the palace, who was watching outside, stopped her and asked her what would be the future career of the king's son. The fortune-teller, after much reluctance on her part, and much entreaty on the part of the pardhan, said : It is written in the fortune of the prince that on the twelfth day after his birth the boy will be drowned in the sea!! Thus saying she went away, and the pardhan, too, did not divulge what he heard from the fortune-teller.
“Eleven days passed after the birth of the prince, and on the twelfth day was to be celebrated the búráví ceremony. For this purpose they fitted a ship to convey them to a certain temple, to come to which they had to cross a sea. Hundreds of guests were invited to be present at the ceremony, and the king and queen made grand preparations to celebrate the auspiu.us event of naming the child, with great joy and befitting pomp.
